The liberal blog of Matthew Rozsa, a PhD student of American history at Lehigh University. As a political columnist, his work has appeared in more than half a dozen publications, among them PolicyMic, "The Morning Call," "The Newark Star-Ledger," "The Trenton Times," "The Express Times," and university newspapers for Bard College and Rutgers-Newark.
He can be reached at mlr511@lehigh.edu.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Inducing Hypochondria

I can understand that the authors of this article were trying to provide a public service by mentioning how common medical ailments may indicate cancer (or at least, I hope that that was their motivation). I can't even bring myself to really condemn them for doing this. My problem, of course, is that as a hypochondriac, I know that reading this piece will cause me to overanalyze my own health to such an extent that I will soon become convinced that death lurks behind every unexplained lump and twinge. There ought to be some disclaimer on these articles making it clear that just because a symptom COULD indicate cancer doesn't mean that it IS cancer, and that, in all probability, it probably is something more innocuous. Of course, such a disclaimer wouldn't draw readers to the web article, and the lack of hits would take a toll on advertising revenue.... nah, that's way too cynical of me.